Taking On Triumphant Tradition
Strategy Page
August 28, 2006: The nation is finding that its ancient traditions are a prison that is difficult to escape from. Tribal loyalties still outrank national ones. That means the Pushtun tribes that created the Taliban, are still willing to back that brand of religious dictatorship, and try to impose it on everyone. If a tribe decides that the drug money is too good to pass up, the tribe or clan is in, completely and to the death. Because of the primacy of tribal loyalty, everyone else can be bought and sold. Corruption is rampant, as it has always been. Even the Taliban were on the take when they were in power, although they were so inept at running the economy, there wasn't much to steal.
All this is made worse by trying to establish a strong central government, something Afghanistan has rarely had. The "center", in true Afghan tradition, tends to take care of itself, at the expense of the provinces. The provinces (the tribes) take it for a while, get really, really upset, and rebel. At the moment, provinces are unhappy, edging towards restless. That's already happening in the south, where the pro-Taliban tribes never really accepted losing control of the country five years ago.
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